Around the World in 80 Books

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of our World Eco-fiction Series, I present "Around the World in 80 Books: A Guide to Ecological and Climate Themes in Fiction," an article at Medium.com. Themes include harsh survival, advocacy, veneration of the world around us, the slow apocalypse, the haunted, the weird, and the psychological. It's an eclectic and diverse range of stories, set around the world, on every continent. Also, Dragonfly is blending the original spotlight on climate change authors with the newer world fiction series, now that these similar author spotlights are on the same domain.

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Orca, Arthur Herzog

Orca–the killer whale–is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe. He hunts in packs, like a wolf. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible vengeance–across seas, across time, across all obstacles.

From Arthur’s widow Leslie, here is some back story:

The 1977 Film Orca is based on Arthur’s book Orca. The film and the book have different endings. I recall Arthur stating he had the idea first before Jaws, as it takes some times years for him to start and then finish a book. Jaws came out in 1975. As I did not meet Arthur until 1981, I only have memories of his talking about going to actually see the filming. Arthur loved animals and got a kick out of my birds, of which one would sit on his head cleaning each hair while Arthur made the sound of a kiss; the bird made the kiss sound back.

Orca--the killer whale--is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe. He hunts in packs, like a wolf. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible vengeance--across seas, across time, across all obstacles.

Quotes

Ursula Le Guin is so important, because she pushed the idea that science fiction, or speculative fiction, can be a space for being really thoughtful, and for really exploring ideas. And also for daring to imagine a version of us that is better—and, in some ways, worse—than our present selves. I think she was unmatched. She was a great novelist, and a great evangelist for the novel. Earthsea is a huge influence, as is The Dispossessed. –Marlon James